Which of these fictional playing cards would you be most likely to put in a deck?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Aerial Jellyfish 2M

Unit - R

Air. Hold. (When this Unit deals damage to another Unit, that unit becomes exhausted and is not reset during its controller's next Reset step.)

1/3

Black Swan BB

Unit - R

Air.

Forfeit Black Swan: Target Unit gains -2/-2 until end of turn.

2/2

Lornful Siren 1M

Unit - U

E: Target Unit attacks this turn if able.

1/2

Mind Flayer 2BB

Unit - R

First Strike. Raid. (When Mind Flayer deals damage to a player, that player exiles a card at random from their hand.)

Mislead: 1. (The first time Mind Flayer would be exiled or destroyed, instead return it to the battlefield with one fewer Mislead counters on it.)

3/1

Staff of Sanctuary 3

Tool - R

2, E: Exile target friendly Unit, then return it to the Battlefield at the beginning of the next Player's Turn.

Gravity Rod 3

Tool - R

E: Put a -1/-1 counter on target Unit.

Constricting Ring 2

Tool - R

Pay 1 Life, E: Exhaust target Permanent.

Aerial Jellyfish

Black Swan

Lornful Siren

Mind Flayer

Staff of Sanctuary

Gravity Rod

Constricting Ring

[WhitneySnow]

I know those are MTG cards but I don’t know enough about the game to say any more

[SeekerOfTruth007]

They are not MTG cards though they are similar. I intend to make my own card game someday to compete with MTG.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Anyway, there are some key differences between my game and Mtg.

1) My game uses "Life Decking" and "Bonus Life" instead of a starting life total.
2) Each player is required to start with EXACTLY 60 cards in their deck and exactly 15 cards in their sideboard.
3) There is only one Main Phase and it is before the Combat Phase.
4) I have different keywords that MTG and many mechanics that aren't in MTG at all.
5) Combat Damage is on the Stack, which is no longer the case in MTG. This makes instants and Disrupts more useful in combat.
6) Disrupts are their own card type and they are "Faster than Instants" now.
7) I take exceptional care to make sure every card is balanced and ratable on a scale of 1 to 7. A 5- star card is the maximum power for a card which is not restricted. A six- star card is DESIGNED to be restricted to two copies per deck, while a 7 star card is DESIGNED to be restricted to one copy per deck.

8) Once published, I would never reprint Rare or Double Rare cards again. Wizards of the Coast devalues their own company and stock by reprinting many old rare cards, including the recent reprinting of Tolarian Academy and Sliver Queen, which caused their value to tank by 90% each.

9) I have both a "Used Pile" which is recycled every turn, a "Lost Pile" which is not recycled every turn but is available for some cards to recover other lost cards, and an "Exiled" pile which can never be accessed again for the entire game. MTG does not have a "Used Pile".

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Oh yeah, another difference:

10) When Combat ends, your End Step immediately begins whether or not you want it to happen, UNLESS an ability on a Card is somehow preventing your End Step from happening. For example: I have at least one card which does give you a second Main Phase and a second Combat Step on the same turn.

11) There is a "Last Strike" and "Triple Strike" ability in my game.

12) "Double Strike' is not strictly better than First Strike in my game, because my Double Strike uses Normal Damage first and then "Last Strike" damage for the second packet of damage. This way First Strike sometimes still beats Double Strike.

13) There are only three colors, and you are encouraged to build a 3-color deck, because some of the best cards are in fact 3-color cards.

Okay, all of those are strict differences. There are other differences, but I'd be writing my entire rule book here, which I have not had notarized or copyrighted yet.

[WhitneySnow]

Yeah definitely get that copyrighted. Also, I am not an expert in collectible card games, but one of my friends told me that Wizards of the Coast reprints rare cards because they don’t make any money on the secondary market and therefore they don’t care how much rare cards are worth.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I have a ton of card ideas. I am considering just making all cards equally rare, rather than having "commons' and "uncommons" and "Rares" and "Mythic" etc. That way there won't be the issue of "Why do some Commons beat some Rares?" etc.

[WhitneySnow]

Then they won’t be collectible. Will they?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Yes they will be, you just print a limited number of the Core Set and a limited number of boxes of each expansion, and if people don't buy "Expansion X" then they just never get the card unless they eventually trade for it or buy it. Also, cards get lost, stolen, or damaged over time, so they will be collectible.

[WhitneySnow]

True